HMS Inflexible (1907)

HMS "Inflexible" was the second of three "Invincible"-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in 1906 to 1908. As such, she was one of the first ships to be designated as a "battlecruiser".

She was authorized in the naval expansion program of 1905, and built at the John Brown & Company shipyard on the Clyde, being laid down on 5 February 1906, launched on the 26 June 1907, and commissioned on 20 October 1908.

Career

Upon commissioning, "Inflexible" was assigned to the Nore Division of the British Home Fleet. On 26 May 1911, she was in a collision with the battleship HMS Bellerophon, and suffered bow damage. She was under refit and repair through November, where her fore funnel was also raised by 6 feet.

On the outbreak of World War I "Inflexible" was flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. Between 4 and 10 August 1914 she was engaged in the pursuit of "Goeben" and "Breslau", before being ordered back to Britain on 19 August 1914. Between 1 and 10 October, she was on the Shetland patrol, covering a troop convoy. She was ordered to the South Atlantic on 4 November 1914 following the British defeat at the Battle of Coronel, and she arrived at the Falkland Islands on 7 December. The next day, she took part in the First Battle of the Falkland Islands, where she assisted in the destruction of the German East Asian squadron under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee, without incurring any damage to herself.

On 19 December, no longer needed in the South Atlantic, she was ordered back to the Mediterranean, where she underwent a refit at Gibraltar before becoming flagship of the Dardanelles operation on 24 January 1915. On 18 March, while she was part of the fleet that was attempting to force the Dardanelles Narrows, she was hit twice by gunfire from Turkish forts and nine crew members were killed; later the same day, she struck a mine and was forced to withdraw after taking in 2,000 tons of water. After repairs at Malta and Gibraltar, she returned to Britain, and joined the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet on 19 June 1915.

On 31 May 1916, she participated in the Battle of Jutland where she sustained no damage, unlike her sister-ship HMS "Invincible" which blew up after taking hits from a German ship, revealing the weakness of the battlecruiser design and implementation - its lack of adequate armour to stand up against battleships in the line of battle. In August 1916, she sailed for operations against the German fleet, but no contact was made. On 1 February 1918 she collided with the submarine K22 off the Isle of May with minor damage. On 21 November she was present at Scapa Flow for the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.

She was paid off to the Reserve Fleet in January 1919 before being decommissioned on 31 March 1920. Chile briefly considered purchasing the ship in 1920, however the sale did not materialise. She was sold in December 1922, and scrapped in Germany in 1923.

References

* John Roberts, "Battlecruiser", (Chatham Publishing, London, 1997), ISBN 1-86176-006-X, ISBN 1-55750-068-1
* Siegfried Breyer, "Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970" (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as "Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970", J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship as designed and as built.

External links

* cite web | url=http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/battleships/inflexible/hms_inflexible.htm | work = MaritimeQuest | title = HMS "Inflexible" Photo Gallery | accessdate=2006-12-27